Online live video sales management system

ABSTRACT

A sales administration system that manages online sales via overlays on a video stream. Customers can comment on or respond to the video stream, and may order products using simple phrases such as “Sold”. The system can stream video with overlays to multiple clients simultaneously, including websites and mobile apps. Comments from all clients are received, aggregated, processed for orders, and displayed to the sales administrator. The system is coupled to a merchant&#39;s operational data, providing immediate visibility to changes in inventory and orders. Video overlays may be updated automatically by the system as this operational data changes, for example highlighting products with low stock. The system may analyze customer comments and orders both during the video stream and after the sales session is complete, and may generate recommendations to improve sales effectiveness. For backorders, customers may preauthorize charges to be at the front of the queue for shipment.

This application is a continuation of U.S. Utility patent applicationSer. No. 16/573,989 filed 17 Sep. 2019, the specification of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

One or more embodiments of the invention are related to the fields ofvideo processing and electronic transaction processing. Moreparticularly, but not by way of limitation, one or more embodiments ofthe invention enable an online live video sales management system.

Description of the Related Art

Selling products online through social media sites and apps is widelyestablished. A relatively recent innovation that has been applied tothese sales channels is “comment selling,” where a user responds to aposted picture or description with a simple phrase that triggers animmediate sales order. For example, a user may view a posted image of aproduct and respond with “sold M”, which indicates that the user wantsto purchase size M of the product; this response may instantly generatea sales order.

While comment selling has simplified the online sales process, it hasnot yet been applied effectively to online video sales. Live videostreams are increasingly used by merchants to highlight their productsor to educate their customers. However, tools to manage the online videoselling process and to provide a simple purchase experience like commentselling for video streams are not known in the art.

For at least the limitations described above there is a need for anonline live video sales management system.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One or more embodiments described in the specification are related to anonline live video sales management system. Embodiments of the systemprovide tools that modify a video stream, for example to highlightproducts for sale, distribute the modified video stream to potentiallyheterogeneous clients for viewing, and aggregate and process customerresponses from those clients.

One or more embodiments of the system receive, process, and manage avideo stream that is used during an online sale. The system may includea database, which may contain data such as products, inventory, backlog,orders, and customers. The database may be coupled to one or moreprocessors that execute system components. These components may includea sales administration system, a video distribution system, and aresponse processing system.

The sales administration system may display products from the database,and the quantity in stock from the inventory table or tables in thedatabase. It may accept a selected product from a user, and may thengenerate an overlay on the frames of the video stream. The overlay maycontain information associated with the selected product, and a responsetemplate that indicates a purchase of the selected product. The salesadministration system may also display responses from customers who viewthe video stream.

The video distribution system may stream the modified video stream thatcontains overlays to one or more clients that execute interactive videoplayer applications. Each interactive video player application may beviewed by multiple customers. Each displays the modified video stream,and accepts customer responses. Responses may be tagged with theidentifier of the customer who responds.

The response processing system may obtain customer responses from all ofthe interactive video player applications that receive the video stream.When a response matches the response template, it may generate apurchase transaction and update the database accordingly. Responses mayalso be sent to the sales administration system for display.

In one or more embodiments, the video overlay may contain productinformation such as a product identifier, a price, a product image, or alist of product options. The response template may include a keyword orkey phrase (such as “sold”), the product identifier, an optionalquantity, and optional product options.

Interactive video player applications may be for example websites ormobile apps. Each may have a video display area that displays the videostream with the product overlays, and a customer comment area thataccepts customer responses. The video distribution system may generate avideo stream for two or more different types of interactive videoplayers, where each video stream is based on a video interface of therespective video player. The response processing system may transformresponses from different interactive video player applications into acommon response format. An illustrative system may for example transmitvideo to two or more different websites and to a mobile app that is usedby multiple customers.

In one or more embodiments the video distribution system may monitor thequality of the modified video stream, and may switch to an alternativestream if the quality falls below a threshold value.

In one or more embodiments the responses displayed by the salesadministration system may include customer importance informationobtained from the database. For example, customer importance may bebased on the number or revenue of previous orders by the customer.

In one or more embodiments, the video stream overlay may be updatedautomatically by the sales administration system. For example, it may beupdated when inventory of the selected product changes. The overlay maybe updated to indicate that one or more product options are no longeravailable, that a limited number remain in stock, or that a certainnumber of additional orders are required before the product will berestocked.

One or more embodiments may position an overlay in a video frame so thatit is proximal to the image of the selected product in the frame. Thedatabase may contain product images, and the sales administration systemmay analyze each frame to locate the image of the selected product inthe frame. In one or more embodiments, multiple products may beselected, and multiple overlays may be added to the video frames, eachproximal to the corresponding product image in each frame. In one ormore embodiments, the sales administration system may perform productselection automatically by recognizing images of products that arevisible in the frames.

In one or more embodiments the sales administration system may generateand display sales recommendations based on analysis of customerresponses. Recommendations may include for example selection of adifferent product, modification of the overlay, or modification of thevideo stream content. The system may recommend that a specific customerbe mentioned in the video stream. A customer to mention may be forexample one who is either new, or who has previously purchased asignificant number or value of products.

One or more embodiments may include a sales effectiveness analysissystem that analyzes the video stream and the responses after the videostream and the online sale are completed. It may identify for exampleaudio or visual elements in the video stream that were effective ingenerating sales or responses, or product selections that resulted inhigh levels of responses or sales. It may also recommend one or morevideo frames to use as static images for marketing, and one or moreproduct display methods (such as use of particular models) to use tomarket products.

For orders that are backlogged, one or more embodiments may prioritizethese orders based for example on customer data, order size, or otherfactors. For example, a customer who preauthorizes a charge for abacklog order may receive priority in shipment. Other customer data,such as customer order history, may also affect the priority ofcustomers in the backlog. For example, a customer with a large number orlarge value of previous orders may be prioritized higher. Other factorsthat may contribute to the customer's priority in the backlog mayinclude the customer's order return history, credit score, and fractionof previous backlogged orders that were ultimately purchased by thecustomer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the inventionwill be more apparent from the following more particular descriptionthereof, presented in conjunction with the following drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an architectural diagram of illustrative components of anonline live video sales management system.

FIG. 2 shows a screenshot of an illustrative user interface of the salesadministration system.

FIG. 3 shows illustrative automatic updates to video overlays that aretriggered by changes to operational data.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment that switches to an alternative video streamif the video quality of an incoming or outgoing stream falls below athreshold.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment that sorts and tags incomingcustomer comments based on customer importance.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment that analyzes video frames to locate productimages, and positions video overlays on or near the associated productimages in the video frames.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment that analyzes customer responses to generatesales recommendations during a live sale.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment with a sales effectiveness analysis systemthat analyzes a sales session after it is over.

FIG. 9 shows an embodiment that prioritizes backlogged orders based onwhether a customer has preauthorized a charge when the ordered itemships.

FIG. 10 shows an embodiment that prioritizes backlogged orders based ona customer value score that may combine factors such as customer orderhistory, credit score, return history, and preauthorization of charges.

FIG. 11 shows illustrative computer hardware that may be used in one ormore embodiments to execute any or all of the components of the system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An online live video sales management system will now be described. Inthe following exemplary description, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of embodimentsof the invention. It will be apparent, however, to an artisan ofordinary skill that the present invention may be practiced withoutincorporating all aspects of the specific details described herein. Inother instances, specific features, quantities, or measurements wellknown to those of ordinary skill in the art have not been described indetail so as not to obscure the invention. Readers should note thatalthough examples of the invention are set forth herein, the claims, andthe full scope of any equivalents, are what define the metes and boundsof the invention.

FIG. 1 shows an architectural block diagram of an embodiment of theinvention. This embodiment includes a database 100, a salesadministration system 110, a video distribution system 120, and aresponse processing system 130. The system may be used for example by amerchant or other entity who sells or offers products or services usinga live video stream 140. Components of the system manage aspects of thesales process, such as overlaying product information on the videostream, publishing the video to client applications, and receiving andprocessing responses from customers with comments or orders. Thecomponents of the system may execute on one or more processors assoftware applications or modules. Embodiments may distribute systemfunctionality across processors in any desired manner. Illustrativecomputer hardware that may be used in one or more embodiments to executeany or all of the components of the system is described below withrespect to FIG. 11.

Database 100 may contain operational data of the merchant, such astables or other data structures related to products 101, inventory 102,orders 103, backlog 104, and customers 105. These tables areillustrative; any data that supports the sales process or businessoperations may be included in database 100. Products data 101 may forexample include data such as product names, numbers, descriptions,images, prices, and options (such as sizes or colors). Inventory data102 may for example include a quantity in stock for each product. Ordersdata 103 may include purchase orders from customers, including bothhistorical orders that have been fulfilled and outstanding orders thathave not been shipped; order details may include products, quantities,and options. Backlog data 104 may track orders that cannot be fulfilleduntil stock is replenished. Customers data 105 may include for examplecustomer contact information, customer identifiers on various sites orapplications, how long a customer has been active or registered, andfinancial profile information such as the customer's payment history andcredit history. In one or more embodiments, database 100 may be a set ofdatabases, files, or other data sources. Database 100 may include datafrom remote data sources or data services.

Sales administration system 110 may be used by merchant personnel tomanage the live video sale process. For example, user 111 may use acomputer 112 executing the administration system 110 to monitor andmodify aspects of the sale, such as the video feed, the product orproducts on offer at different points in time, and the responses fromcustomers. In one or more embodiments, sales administration system 110may be used by multiple users simultaneously. The sales administrationsystem 110 is connected to video stream 140, which may be generated liveby a video capture studio 141, or it may be streamed from a prerecordedvideo archive. The video capture may be performed by the merchantadministering the sale, or by another studio separate from the merchant.In one or more embodiments, the staff managing or participating in thevideo capture process 141 may also use one or more features of the salesadministration system 110; for example, the producer of the video may beable to see incoming comments from the customers, and may modify thevideo recording accordingly, such as by responding to customer questionsor comments in the video.

The video stream 140 may for example showcase one or more productsoffered by the merchant. The sales administration system 110 may be usedto integrate data about these products into the video stream, which mayenable customers watching the modified video stream to order productsdirectly during (or after) the live video stream. The salesadministration system 110 is connected to database 100, so that up todate operational data is available to user 111 to make decisions aboutthe sales process. This data may also be used to automatically modifythe video stream in one or more embodiments. Sales administration system110 may provide a preview video feature 113, with which user 111 mayview the video stream 140, and may view the modified video stream thatincludes product data or other added information. A display or queryfeature 114 may be provided so that the user can view the products,orders, inventory, and backlog data (or any other information) indatabase 100. The user may then select a product or products 115 tohighlight in the video stream. Typically, but not necessarily, this maybe a product that is currently visible in the video stream. For example,a clothing merchant may produce a live video with models showing variousarticles that the merchant offers. As different articles are displayedin the video, the sales administrator 111 may select some of theseproducts using feature 115, and may generate and customize a videooverlay using feature 116 to display information about the selectedproduct or products. Products may be selected using any type of userinterface; for example, user 111 may type in the name or identifier ofthe product, select the product from a list, scan a barcode associatedwith the product, or take a picture of a product that is matched againstproduct images in database 100. The overlay may include a responsetemplate that informs customers viewing the video how they shouldrespond to indicate that they want to make a purchase. As describedbelow, the system allows customers to purchase items with simplecomments or responses made directly to the live video. The simplicityand immediacy of these purchase transactions (performed by replying toor commenting on the video) may significantly improve saleseffectiveness and revenue.

Because the sales administration system 110 displays inventory andbacklog data, user 111 may use this data in selection of products tohighlight. For example, if a product is out of stock, the user mayselect a different product. If there are only a few items of a productleft in inventory, the overlay may be modified to indicate thisscarcity. Any data from database 100 may be used either by user 111 orautomatically by the sales administration system 110 to modify theoverlay for the video stream. Database 100 may be updated live astransactions occur, and these updates may be displayed immediately inthe sales administration system 110; this online processing ensures thatdata in the video stream shown to customers is current, leading toimproved customer satisfaction and sales.

In one or more embodiments, the video stream 140 may be modified inother ways instead of or in addition to adding one or more overlays ontothe frames of the stream. For example, image processing may be used tovisually highlight the selected product or products, for example bydimming areas of the frame other than the product or by brightening thepixels of the product image. Other graphics may be added to the videostream, such as arrows pointing to the selected product or products. Anyof these modifications may be done manually by a sales administrator 111or automatically by the system.

The modified video stream 118 may be streamed to a video distributionsystem 120, which transmits the modified stream over one or morenetworks to one or more interactive video player applications. Theseapplications may be used by or viewed by customers, who may thengenerate responses to the video including purchases of displayedproducts. An interactive video player application may be any website,application, mobile app, client, server, or system that displays themodified video stream 118 to one or more viewers. In some embodimentsthe video player application may provide a commenting feature for usersto respond to the video. In other embodiments users may respond to avideo using other tools or features, such as texting or email. Aninteractive video player application may be for example a web page witha frame that displays the video stream. For example, live video streamsmay be accessed by users on Facebook® pages, on YouTube®, or on similarsocial media sites. An interactive video player application may be amobile app, such as an app associated with the merchant or with a groupof merchants, that shows the video on a mobile device (such as a phoneor tablet) and that allows the user to respond. The modified stream 118may be sent via video distribution system 120 to interactive videoplayer applications over any type of network using any desired protocol;for example, the stream 118 may be transmitted over an Internetconnection to a web server that then streams the video to clientsviewing a web page hosted by that web server.

FIG. 1 shows three illustrative interactive video player applications150, 160, and 170. Application 150 is a web page of a social media site;application 160 is a web page on the merchant's web site; andapplication 170 is a mobile app provided by the merchant. Customer 151views site 150 using device 152; customer 161 views site 160 usingdevice 162; and customer 171 views mobile app 170 using device 172. Thedevices used by customers may be any type of computing or displaydevices, including for example, without limitation, a mobile phone, apersonal digital assistant, a tablet, a laptop, a notebook, a desktopcomputer, a smart watch, smart goggles, or a virtual reality headset.Video distribution system 120 may format or adapt the modified videostream 118 to conform to interface requirements of the variousinteractive video players to which the stream 118 is sent. For example,different websites or applications may support different protocols,different video encoding formats, different resolutions, or differencesin how video streams are setup, maintained, and terminated. Videodistribution system 120 manages simultaneous streaming to thesepotentially heterogeneous video players.

The overlay added in step 116 to the video stream is shown as part ofthe video in the video window of each video player application. Theoverlay may be integrated into each video frame, or in one or moreembodiments the overlay may be transmitted as metadata that is thenadded to the video frames by the media player. A simple overlay 154 isshown in video window 153 of video player application 150; this overlaycontains the response template that a customer may use to respond toindicate a purchase of the product. In this illustrative responsetemplate, the keyword “Sold” must be entered with the product identifier“432” to indicate a purchase of this product. The product options, inthis case a size, are also listed, and the selected size should beentered as part of the response for a purchase. One or more embodimentsmay use any key word or key phrase to indicate a purchase. The responsetemplate may include another data such as product identifiers, productoptions, or purchase quantities.

Each video player application shown is interactive, in that the user caninteract with the video by posting replies or comments. For example, invideo player application 150, a comment area 155 appears below the videowindow 153. Customer 151 can comment in this area, and can view commentsfrom other viewers of the video. For example, comment 157 is fromanother user, and comment 158 is entered by the customer 151. Comment158 matches the response template 154, so it triggers a purchase orderfrom this customer for the selected product.

One or more embodiments may provide customer interaction usingmechanisms other than or in addition to a comment area. For example,customers may be able to respond to a video using a text message, email,voicemail, or any other type of communication. The response template mayfor example indicate that a customer can send a text to a particularnumber to purchase a product, or send an email to a particular emailaddress.

Response processing system 130 obtains, standardizes, aggregates, andprocesses the customer responses from all of the video playerapplications. Responses from different video player applications orother tools may be transformed to a common format for analysis andfurther processing. Each response may be tagged with data such as theidentifier of the person responding, the site or app from which theresponse was generated, and a timestamp of when the response wasgenerated. Responses may be processed to generate sales transactions,which result in updates to orders, inventory, and backlog data indatabase 100. They may also be aggregated, filtered, tagged, sorted,categorized, or otherwise processed, and forwarded to a response viewingfeature 117 in the sales administration system 110. User 111 may thenview the responses from users, potentially in almost real time, to gaugethe reaction to the video stream and to adjust the sales processaccordingly. The response viewing feature 117 may also be available tothe video production staff performing capture 141 so that video contentmay be adjusted as desired based on incoming responses.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative screenshot 200 of an embodiment of salesadministration system 110. Video stream preview window 213 shows thevideo stream with the overlay 254. The overlay includes the responsetemplate, the product options, a thumbnail image 264 of the product, andthe product price 265. This data is illustrative; one or moreembodiments may include any information related to the product or theresponse template in an overlay. In this example the product options aresizes (S, M, or L); in one or more embodiments product options mayinclude for example, without limitation, any or all of sizes, colors,styles, quantities, materials, patterns, or configurations. Productselection window 215 shows products available; the sales administrationuser may select a product for example by clicking on the desiredproduct, by searching in a search field, or by scanning a barcode.Product detail window 202 shows details for the currently selectedproduct, including the product options and the current inventory foreach option. Customer response window 217 shows aggregated comments madeby customers on the live video. Comments are tagged with the origin siteor application 261. Some comments such as comment 258 match the responsetemplate for an order, and are flagged as orders; for others the labelshows that they are not orders. Comments that represent orders may be invarious stages of a purchase; for example, a customer may have indicatedan intent to purchase but may not yet have completed checkout. Thelabels or tags associated with comments may also indicate these purchasestages; for example, labels may indicate stages such as “not order,” “incart”, “checkout in process,” “payment submitted,” and “paymentauthorized”.

The overlay added to a video stream may be modified by a user, orautomatically by the live sales administration system as the merchant'soperational data changes. FIG. 3 shows illustrative automaticmodifications of overlays as a result of changes in inventory andbacklogs. In this embodiment, live sales administration system 110includes rules 301 that define what updates should be made automaticallyto video overlays. These rules may be defined or modified by users ofthe administration system. Database 100 may be updated based on responseprocessing system 130 (which may generate orders based on comments), orbased on other business transactions. Database updates may be processedby the overlay auto-update rules 301, generating automatic changes tothe overlay. For example, the rules 301 may be implemented as databasetriggers. FIG. 3 shows three illustrative automated updates of anoverlay 310. If a stock out 311 occurs for certain product options,modified overlay 321 may shows that these options are no longeravailable, for example by crossing out those options. If a low stockthreshold 312 is reached for certain product options, these options maybe highlighted in modified overlay 322, and a message may be addedencouraging customers to act quickly if they want those options. If abackorder condition 313 occurs for a product, modified overlay 323 mayadd a message describing the backorder and indicating how manyadditional orders are needed to trigger restocking of the product by themerchant. These modifications are illustrative; one or more embodimentsmay define any rules to generate any types of modifications to the videooverlays.

One or more embodiments may monitor the incoming and outgoing videostreams, and may switch to an alternative video stream if stream qualityor other parameters fall below certain thresholds. FIG. 4 shows anillustrative embodiment of video distribution system 120 that includes astream monitoring module 401 and a video stream selection module 403.The stream monitoring module 401 may for example monitor thetransmission rate, error rate, or other stream quality parameters of themodified video stream 118 generated by the sales administration system110, and of the streams that are forwarded to the video player clientssuch as clients 150, 160, and 170. Network monitoring modules 402 a, 402b, 402 c, and 402 d may for example monitor these streams and feedinformation on stream quality to monitoring module 401. If monitoringmodule 401 detects problems in an incoming or outgoing stream, it mayswitch one or more of these streams to an alternative stream 404. Analternative stream may for example be more reliable, or may consume lessbandwidth. Automatic switching to a backup stream may be valuable forexample for a video player client that may disconnect if the incomingstream becomes unreliable. In one or more embodiments, an alternativestream may consist of one or more still images 405 that areautomatically generated from database 100; for example, these images maybe static listings of product catalogs, product images, or similaritems.

The live sales administration system may display incoming customerresponses, and may augment or process the responses to assist sales andproduct personnel in adapting the video or overlay or in responding toincoming comments. For example, one or more embodiments may accesscustomer data in the database to determine the relative importance of acustomer who has responded, and may highlight responses from moreimportant customers. Customer importance may be determined in anydesired manner. FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment with a customerimportance module 501 that in this example groups customers intoimportance tiers. The responses 217 a displayed by viewing module 117 ofsales administration system 110 include the customer importance tier502, and sort customer responses by customer importance. Responses fromtop-tier importance customers are highlighted. This tagging, sorting,and highlighting draws attention to the important customers, so thatsales administrator may for example generate a personal response to theimportant customers, or may suggest to video production staff that theymention these important customers in the video.

In the example shown in FIG. 5, customer importance is determined basedon the number of orders each customer has placed in the past. Theresponse processor 130 obtains responses that are tagged with a source(such as a website) and a customer identifier; for example, response 510is from source 511 and customer 512 on that source. This identifier 512must be correlated with customer data in database 100. This correlationmay be defined for example in customer identities table 521, which mapsthese source-specific identifiers to a common customer identifier suchas customer name 531. A customer order history table 522 may then mapthis customer name into an order history, which may provide for examplethe number of orders each customer has placed or the total revenue ofthose orders. This data may be used to determine the customerimportance, with customers who have placed more orders or orders withmore sales revenue ranking higher in importance. One or more embodimentsmay use any other data to determine customer importance, such as forexample a customer's projected net worth, credit score, paymentreliability, or zip code. In one or more embodiments, a new customer maybe ranked as more important than existing customers, since it may beconsidered more important to provide a good first impression to a newpotential purchaser.

In the illustrative overlays shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an overlay for asingle product is added at the top of each video frame, in a fixedposition. One or more embodiments may instead dynamically positionoverlays, and may in some cases generate overlays for more than oneproduct at a time. These features are illustrated in FIG. 6. Twoillustrative frames 140 a and 140 b from the video stream are providedto the sales administration system 110. As previously described, a salesadministration user uses the select product(s) module 115 to select oneor more products, for example from a list or by scanning barcodes. Inthe scenario illustrated in FIG. 6, the user selects three differentproducts. Associated with the products data 101 in database 100 isproduct image data 601; this product image data may provide illustrativeimages, colors, sizes, shapes, or other data that supportsidentification of product images within frames 140 a and 140 b. Productimage data is input into product location module 610, which analyzes theframes and finds the location within each frame of each of the selectedproducts. This analysis and product location process may use for exampletechnologies known in the art for identifying and locating items withinimages, such as neural networks that are trained on sample item images.The product locations within the frames are provided to overlaypositioning module 611, which positions an overlay for each productproximal to or over the image of each product within each frame. Asproducts move from frame to frame, the overlay positioning module 611repositions the product-specific overlays so that they track the visibleproduct positions in each frame. For example, the handbag productoverlay moves from position 620 a in frame 140 a to position 620 b inframe 140 b; the dress overlay moves from position 621 a to position 621b, and the pumps overlay moves from position 622 a to position 622 b.The overlay positioning module 611 may also perform layout processing toensure that overlays do not intersect or obstruct one another.

In one or more embodiments, the product location module 610 may supportfully or partially automated product selection, as a replacement for oradjunct to the manual product selection process 115. For example,product location module 610 may scan a frame and may identify anyvisible products it finds in the frame; overlays may then be constructedautomatically for these products. This capability may provide for afully automated video selling process, wherein a video feed isautomatically annotated with overlay banners for any visible productsthat appear in frames of the video. If a sales administrative user isavailable, the user may review the automated product selections andmodify them as desired, or customize overlay banners as desired. One ormore embodiments may support variations of these ideas. For example, auser may select a group of products prior to starting a video feed, andthe system may then determine which product or products within thisgroup appear in each frame without further user input as the videoproceeds.

In one or more embodiments, the sales administration system 110 mayanalyze incoming responses from customers and may generate salesrecommendations based on this analysis. Recommendations may be displayedfor example to the sales administrator or to video production staff.FIG. 7 shows an illustrative example where incoming responses areaggregated by response processing system 130, and are transmitted to aresponse analysis module 701 in the sales administration system.Analysis results are input into a sales recommendations module 702,which generates and displays recommendations. These recommendations mayinclude for example recommended products to select next, recommendedchanges to overlays, recommended price changes, or recommended mentionsof customers in the video feed itself. FIG. 7 shows several illustrativerecommendations. Recommendation 711 suggests continuing with thecurrently selected product because sales are continuing at a strong pace(or because comments are largely positive and continuing).Recommendation 712 suggests switching to a specific product based on ananalysis of the comments from customers. Recommendation 713 suggestsswitching to another product because the trend of comments has declined.Recommendation 714 suggests switching to another product becausecomments are mostly negative, and sales are weak. Recommendation 715suggests modifying the overlay to answer a question that occursfrequently in comments. One or more embodiments may correlate responseswith customer data in database 100, and may suggest for example that thevideo mention specific customers, possibly because they are particularlyvaluable customers (who have made a high number of purchases orpurchases of high aggregate value compared to a threshold), or becausethey are new customers. The recommendation module 702 may also retrievedata from database 100 to suggest personalized mentions, such asmentions of the person and where they are from. Illustrativerecommendation 721 suggests mentioning a high value customer, andillustrative recommendation 722 suggestions mentioning a new customer.The recommendations shown in FIG. 7 are illustrative; one or moreembodiments may generate any types of sales recommendations for anyaspect of the selling process, based on analyses of incoming comments,database information, or any other relevant data.

In addition to or instead of generating sales recommendations during alive sale, one or more embodiments may analyze a sales session after ithas completed, and may generate conclusions or recommendations based onthis analysis. FIG. 8 shows an illustrative embodiment that incorporatesa sales effectiveness analysis system 801. This system processes datacaptured from a sales session, which may include for example the videoframes 140, the timeline of which product or products were selected andshown in overlays 811, the timeline of models that modeled products 812(for example for clothing sales), the timeline of sales volume 813, andthe timeline of the numbers of positive comments 814 and of negativecomments 815. The counts of positive and negative comments over time maybe derived for example by performing sentiment analysis on the text ofresponses obtained from response processing system 130. Saleseffectiveness analysis system 801 may also access and analyze database100 or any other operational data. FIG. 8 shows illustrativerecommendations and conclusions that may be generated by the saleseffectiveness analysis system. Sales or comment sentiment may becorrelated with the product 811 and model 812 to determine the bestcombination 821 of a model and product. Analysis system 801 may forexample determine that certain models are more effective at sellingcertain products, or that certain models are more effective overall. Amodel who models clothing is an example of a method of displaying aproduct; more generally, the sales effectiveness analysis system maydetermine which methods of displaying products were most effective. Thesystem may correlate sales or comment timelines with the content of thevideo frames and the content of overlay banners to derive conclusions822. These conclusions may for example indicate that certain types ofmotion, audio, lighting, settings, or overlays are more or lesseffective in driving sales or positive comments. The sales effectivenessanalysis system 801 may also scan the video frames 140 and correlatethem with sales or comments to select the best images for each product,such as images 823; these images may be useful for example inadvertising for products on websites or print media. These conclusionsand suggestions 821, 822, and 823 are illustrative; one or moreembodiments may analyze the sales session and related data to make anytype of recommendations for future sales, promotions, or campaigns.

Merchants may accept orders for products that cannot be immediatelyshipped; these orders may be placed into a backlog queue for futureshipment as stock is replenished. In one or more embodiments, customerdata or customer actions may affect the priority of customer orders inthe backlog. Merchants need not necessarily fulfill backlogged orders ina first-come, first-served order. One or more embodiments may provide acapability for a customer to be prioritized higher in the backlog bypreauthorizing a charge for the order. This scenario is illustrated inFIG. 9. Customer 151 posts a comment 901 indicating a desire to order aproduct. The response processing system 130 processes the order, anddetermines that the desired product and size are backordered. Instead ofadding the customer to the back of the backlog 910 for this product andsize, the response processor sends a message 902 to the customer askingthe customer to preauthorize the purchase. If the customer responds witha preauthorization 903 (which may for example involve providing a creditcard number and an authorization to charge the card automatically whenthe product ships), then the customer may be placed at the front of thebacklog 911, and may be the first (or among the first) to receive ashipment when the product is back in stock.

More generally, one or more embodiments may prioritize a backlog ofbackorders using any information about the customer, the order, chargepreauthorization, or any other data in database 100 or from other datasources. Intelligent backlog prioritization may improve sales revenue,profitability, and customer satisfaction. FIG. 10 shows an illustrativeembodiment that combines several types of data to intelligentlyprioritize order backlogs. In this embodiment, customer data 105 indatabase 100 contains a detailed profile of each customer; anillustrative profile 1001 is shown for customer 151. Whenever a customerplaces an order that goes into the backlog, a customer value scorecalculation 1002 determines the value of this customer compared to thevalue of other customers with backorders for the same product andoptions. The backlog 1011 for each backordered product is thenprioritized by customer value score. Embodiments may calculate customervalues scores using any desired algorithm or formula, for example byweighting customer attributes 1001 by any desired importance weights.Illustrative factors that may affect a customer value score may includefor example, without limitation, how long the customer has been acustomer, the number of orders a customer has made in the past, thetotal sales revenue from the customer's past orders, the profit marginon the customer's past orders, whether the customer has preauthorized apurchase of the backordered item (as described with respect to FIG. 9),the fraction of past backorders the customer has ultimately purchased,the fraction of past orders the customer has returned, and thecustomer's credit score. In one or more embodiments, backlogprioritization may also be based on the size of the order; for example,customers that order a larger quantity of a backlogged item may beprioritized above those who order only one item.

FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of exemplary computer 1100 that may beutilized in, by, or as any component in the system. In one or moreembodiments, computer 1100 may be a network of computers, each of whichmay have any or all of the components shown in FIG. 11. In one or moreembodiments, computer or computers 1100 may also be utilized toimplement any function in the system, i.e., any step or act or functionthat executes in any computer or server or engine in the system.Computer 1100 may include processor CPU 1107 that executes softwareinstructions specifically tailored to the respective functions ofembodiments of the invention. The software instructions, otherwise knownas computer program instructions, may reside within memory 1106.Computer 1100 may include processor GPU 1105, which may execute graphicsinstructions or other instructions for highly parallel operations, forexample. GPU program instructions may also reside within memory 1106.Computer 1100 may include display interface 1108, which may drivedisplay unit or units 1110 of any computer in the system as desired.Some computers 1100 may or may not utilize a display. Computer 1100 mayinclude communication interface 1124, which may include wireless orwired communications hardware protocol chips. In one or more embodimentsof the invention communication interface 1124 may include telephonicand/or data communications hardware. In one or more embodimentscommunication interface 1124 may include a Wi-Fi™ and/or BLUETOOTH™wireless communications interface. Any wireless network protocol or typemay be utilized in embodiments of the invention. CPU 1107, GPU 1105,memory 1106, display interface 1108, communication interface 1124, humaninterface devices 1130, secondary memory 1112, such as hard disk 1114,removable storage 1116, secondary memory interface 1120 and removablestorage units 1118 and 1122 may communicate with one another overcommunication infrastructure 1102, which is commonly known as a “bus”.Communications interface 1124 may communicate over any wired or wirelessmedium that allows for communication with other wired or wirelessdevices over network 1140. Network 1140 may communicate with Internet1160 and/or database or databases 1150. Database 1150 may be utilized toimplement any database described herein.

While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means ofspecific embodiments and applications thereof, numerous modificationsand variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A live video sales management system thatprocesses customer responses, comprising: a database comprising one ormore of products and services; and inventory comprising data associatedwith one or more of each product of said products and each service orsaid services; and, a processor coupled to a memory and configured toexecute a sales administration system coupled to said database and to avideo stream, and configured to display one or more of said products andsaid data associated with each product, and said services and said dataassociated with each service; accept a selected product of said productsor a selected service of said services from a user; perform videoprocessing on said video stream to form a modified video stream, whereinsaid modified video stream comprises information associated with saidselected product or said selected service; and a response template toindicate a purchase of said selected product or said selected service; avideo distribution system that streams said modified video stream to oneor more interactive video player applications, wherein said one or moreinteractive video player applications are used by a plurality ofcustomers; each interactive video player application is configured todisplay said modified video stream; accept a response from a customer ofa plurality of customers who uses said interactive video playerapplication; and include an identifier of said customer in saidresponse; a response processing system coupled to said database and tosaid sales administration system, and configured to obtain said responsefrom said customer; when said response matches said response template,generate a purchase transaction for a purchase of said selected productor said selected service by said customer; update said database; and,transmit said response to said sales administration system.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein said information associated with saidselected product comprises one or more of a product identifier; a price;a product image; and a list of product options; and, said responsetemplate comprises a keyword or key phrase; said product identifier; anoptional quantity; and, an optional product option of said list ofproduct options.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein said one or moreinteractive video player applications comprise a website comprising avideo display area that displays said modified video stream; and acustomer comment area that accepts said response from said customer. 4.The system of claim 1, wherein said one or more interactive video playerapplications comprise a mobile device app executing on a plurality ofcustomer devices, wherein said mobile app comprises a video display areathat displays said modified video stream; and a customer comment areathat accepts said response from said customer.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein said one or more interactive video player applications comprisetwo or more interactive video player applications; said videodistribution system is configured to generate a video stream for eachinteractive video player application of said two or more interactivevideo player applications based on a video interface of said eachinteractive video player application; and, said response processingsystem is further configured to transform responses from said eachinteractive video player application into a common response format. 6.The system of claim 5, wherein said two or more interactive video playerapplications comprise two or more websites and a mobile device appexecuting on a plurality of customer devices.
 7. The system of claim 1,wherein said video distribution system is configured to monitor aquality of said modified video stream; and, switch to an alternate videostream when said quality of said modified video stream falls below athreshold value.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein said database furthercomprises customer data; said sales administration system is furtherconfigured for each response of said response from a customer of saidplurality of customers to obtain said identifier of said customer fromsaid each response; retrieve data associated with said customer fromsaid customer data in said database, based on said identifier of saidcustomer; generate customer importance information associated with saidcustomer based on said data associated with said customer; and, displaysaid customer importance information with said response from saidcustomer of said plurality of customers.
 9. The system of claim 8,wherein said customer data comprises customer order history; saidcustomer importance information is based on one or both of a number oforders by said customer in said customer order history and a salesrevenue from said customer in said customer order history.
 10. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein said sales administration system is furtherconfigured to update said modified video stream based on changes to saidinventory or update said modified video stream to indicate that one ormore product options associated with said selected product are no longeravailable or update said modified video stream to indicate that only alimited number of said selected product remain in stock or update saidmodified video stream to indicate that additional orders of saidselected product are required prior to restocking said selected product.11. The system of claim 1, wherein said perform said video processing onsaid video stream comprises generate an overlay onto frames of saidvideo stream, and wherein said database further comprises productimages; and said sales administration system is further configured toanalyze each frame of said frames to locate an image of said selectedproduct; and, position said overlay in said each frame at a locationproximal to said image of said product.
 12. The system of claim 11,wherein said sales administration system is further configured to accepta plurality of selected products of said products from said user;generate a plurality of overlays onto said frames corresponding to saidplurality of selected products; analyze said each frame to locate animage of each selected product of said plurality of selected products;position each overlay of said plurality of overlays in said each frameat a location proximal to said image of said each selected productcorresponding to said each overlay.
 13. The system of claim 11, whereinsaid sales administration system is further configured to analyze eachframe of said frames to determine one or more visible products of saidproducts in said each frame and set said selected product to one of saidone or more visible products or analyze said response from said customerof said plurality of customers to generate one or more salesrecommendations and display said one or more sales recommendationswherein said one or more sales recommendations comprise identifying acustomer to mention in said video stream.
 14. The system of claim 13,wherein said one or more sales recommendations comprise one or more of arecommendation to select a different product; a recommendation to modifysaid overlay; and, a recommendation to modify a content of said videostream.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein said database furthercomprises customer order history; and, said identifying said customer tomention comprises identifying said customer as one who generates aresponse of said response and who is one of a new customer; or acustomer who has made previous purchases of a number or value above athreshold.
 16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a saleseffectiveness analysis system coupled to said database, to said videostream, and to said response processing system, and configured toanalyze said video stream and said response from said customer of saidplurality of customers after said video stream terminates to identifyone or more of audio or visual elements in said video stream thatresulted in high levels of responses or sales; and, product selectionsthat resulted in high levels of responses or sales; and, wherein saidsales effectiveness analysis system is further configured to recommendone or more of one or more video frames to select as static images tomarket one or more of said products; one or more product display methodsto market said one or more of said products.
 17. The system of claim 1,wherein said database further comprises customer data; and backlogorders; said response processing system is further configured to assigna priority to each backlog order of said backlog orders based oncustomer data associated with a customer associated with said eachbacklog order.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein said customer datacomprises an indication of whether said customer has preauthorized acharge when said each backlog order is fulfilled; and, a backlog orderwith a preauthorized charge is prioritized higher than another backlogorder without a preauthorized charge.
 19. The system of claim 17,wherein said customer data comprises customer order history; and, abacklog order from a customer with a large number or value of priororders is prioritized higher than another backlog order from anothercustomer with a smaller number or value of prior orders.
 20. The systemof claim 17, wherein said priority is based on one or more of whethersaid customer has preauthorized a charge when said each backlog order isfulfilled; a size of said each backlog order; an order return history ofsaid customer; a credit score of said customer; and, a fraction ofprevious backlogged orders from said customer that were purchased bysaid customer.